Privilege escalation in X.org Server

1) Privilege escalation

EUVDB-ID: #VU15538

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 7.2 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:F/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2018-14665

CWE-ID: CWE-264 - Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Exploit availability: Yes

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to gain elevated privileges on the target system.

The vulnerability exists due to improper handling of two command-line options, namely -logfile and -modulepath. A local user can specify a '-modulepath' argument with an insecure path to create, overwrite or delete any files with root privileges.

Mitigation

Update to version 1.20.3.

Vulnerable software versions

X.org Server: 1.3.0 - 1.91.2

External links

http://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/commit/50c0cf885a6e91c0ea71fb49fa8f1b7c86fe330e
http://www.securepatterns.com/2018/10/cve-2018-14665-another-way-of.html
http://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/multi/local/xorg_x11_sui...

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability. However, a fully functional exploit for this vulnerability is available.